A liquid crystal display device (LCD) may include various optical elements such as a polarizer, a retardation plate, an optical compensation film, a reflective sheet and a brightness enhancing film.
For example, the liquid crystal display device may comprise a liquid crystal panel and a polarizing plate attached to said panel. The polarizing plate may comprise, for example, a polarizer comprising an iodine compound or a dichroic dye arranged in a given direction, and a protective film attached to both sides of said polarizer, and comprise a pressure sensitive adhesive layer, which is formed on bottom of said protective film to attach the polarizing plate to the liquid crystal panel.
For the polarizing plate with the basic structure, Patent Reference No. 1 discloses a polarizing plate that a protective film, a polarizer, a pressure sensitive adhesive layer and an optical film are sequentially formed thereon. Patent Reference No. 1 is intended to provide a thin and light polarizing plate by removing one film of protective films formed on both sides of the conventional polarizer.
However, the polarizer is usually prepared by a hydrophilic polymer such as polyvinyl alcohol, vulnerable to water or moisture, and characteristically easily contracted, when a stretching process is carried out during the preparation processes. Therefore, if the protective film is simply removed as in Patent Reference No. 1, performance of the polarizing plate is highly deteriorated.